Video: Image size considerations

Before we actually begin to size our images, there are few things that we need to consider and we need to wrap our brain around screen resolution. So I want to do that in this movie. In particular, I want to look at sizing our images for viewing on a website and then sizing our images for e-mail. Now one of the things we do know is that there is still majority out there that use a resolution on their monitor of 1024X768. So typically, we need to keep these numbers in mind. One of the things we have to know about these numbers is that we actually don't have all of these pixels and here is why? On a Mac you have a dock down below, on a PC you have your Start menu, then the top of the browser takes up a certain amount of space as well.

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Image size considerations

Before we actually begin to size our images, there are few things that we needto consider and we need to wrap our brain around screen resolution. So I wantto do that in this movie. In particular, I want to look at sizing our imagesfor viewing on a website and then sizing our images for e-mail.Now one of the things we do know is that there is still majority out there thatuse a resolution on their monitor of 1024X768. So typically, we need to keepthese numbers in mind.One of the things we have to know about these numbers is that we actuallydon't have all of these pixels and here is why? On a Mac you have a dock downbelow, on a PC you have your Start menu, then the top of the browser takes up acertain amount of space as well.

We also have a scroll bar in the right that can take up space. So, we actuallydon't have all of these pixels, we don't actually have 1024 across and 768 attop, we have a little bit less than that. And so just as a way of creating areference point, let's talk about niche.comNow Niche is a company that pushes the envelope yet they still need to have areally broad reach. So what do they design their website and for their homepage? Well the home page is 950 pixels across and 570 pixels top. So that is apretty interesting numbers.

So one of the things that these numbers help us know is that our images aresomehow going to have to fit within those dimensions and typically you don'twant to go taller than 585 but even that would be way too big.So what are some different sizes that we can consider? Let's open up an imagefor a second. So here we have an image inside of this space. There are a lot ofdifferent considerations. Sometimes it's nice to have a little bit morenegative space around the image so our sizes went down. In this case we havesome breathing room, I'll undo that. Perhaps we want a larger image, whatnumbers can we go with? Well we know that they need to be at least less than,approximately 900 wide and at least less than 585 tall.

So a good starting point, we've really large size image on the web, which wouldbe about 800 wide by about 525 or so tall. Now that's a really big image inthis viewing area but that something we could work with.Well then let's consider if we are going to e-mail someone an image. Here Ihave a quick screen grab of my e-mail client, I use Entourage, there are anumber of different e-mail programs out there and a lot of us use web mail likeGmail or something like that.Well then let's take a look at sizing your images down for sending e-mail.

Let's say I want to send my mom, a photograph of my daughter Sophia because sheloves getting photographs of Sophia. Well, I want to size my image down evenfurther, if I size that to 800 wide. Well, it just would be too big. There willbe some scrolling involved. Now I want her to be able to see the image insideof her e-mail client. So in this case I'm going to size this one down to about500 or less wide.Well the intent of this movie is to just begin to help us to think about screenresolution and how that effects, how we size our images. Enough on this, let'sactually size our images and we'll do that in the next movie.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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